How institutions and local relationships dictate political power and electoral outcomes in New York City - spanning Bedford-Stuyvesant, the Upper West Side, Co-op City and Westchester County.
Michael, kudos to you for a very well researched piece that is rich with history. I humbly offer a few thoughts:
I agree with your point on the need to be proactive once in office. However, I think there is an underrated issue at play in the Bush and Bowman losses. The left is eager to point to AIPAC or their lack of state/local level experience prior to Congress as explanations for their losses. But I think the answer is much simpler, and one which the left seems reluctant to confront: they were not good members of Congress. I say this with sadness as Bowman was someone I had high hopes for in the past. But ultimately, they said a lot of *weird shit*, not even related to Israel, like Bowman's 9/11 conspiracies and Bush's pray the covid away weirdness. Reading Bush's interviews in particular showed poor comprehension of many issues, which was disturbing to say the least.
I also humbly and with respect offer some quick suggestions for future pieces: there's too much italicization! And while your thesis was interesting, it got muddled a bit in the length of this piece.
I've really enjoyed your work and glad you're back writing. Can't wait for more from you
Curious what your thoughts are on the future of Alvin Bragg. Obviously DA are rarely primaried especially the Manhattan DA and Bragg's successful conviction of Trump in a jurisdiction that doesn't particular like Trump would seem to be big factors in discouraging any primary challenge. Bragg also has a huge campaign war chest for a typical DA(much of it raised post Trump conviction) On the other hand the same Eric Adams/Tali Farhadian Weinstein voting electorate is still out there and I am not sure they like Bragg any more today than did when he was first elected(Although Eric Adams' own legal issues are not probably causing this group of people to think more highly of Adams).
My own view is another self funded challenge by Tali Farhadian Weinstein would look really bad and given her ties to the hedge industry might give off vibes of being some type of payback from Trump supporting hedge funders like Bill Ackman. Anyways curious if anyone has any thoughts on this.
It was painful having to chose between Zinerman and Huntley, both horrible but in different ways. As a founding member of one of Brooklyn's reform clubs fifteen years ago, I never thought I'd ever find myself voting for the machine candidate. But the far left turn of recent years has left me politically homeless.
That was driven home for me every time I walked by that huge Palestinian flag in Huntley's office, and saw it framed as his number one issue in mailers. In a state assembly race! The only consolation is all the recent anti-Semitism finally has a lot of millennial liberals waking up from wokeness. Quietly and privately for now.
Michael, kudos to you for a very well researched piece that is rich with history. I humbly offer a few thoughts:
I agree with your point on the need to be proactive once in office. However, I think there is an underrated issue at play in the Bush and Bowman losses. The left is eager to point to AIPAC or their lack of state/local level experience prior to Congress as explanations for their losses. But I think the answer is much simpler, and one which the left seems reluctant to confront: they were not good members of Congress. I say this with sadness as Bowman was someone I had high hopes for in the past. But ultimately, they said a lot of *weird shit*, not even related to Israel, like Bowman's 9/11 conspiracies and Bush's pray the covid away weirdness. Reading Bush's interviews in particular showed poor comprehension of many issues, which was disturbing to say the least.
I also humbly and with respect offer some quick suggestions for future pieces: there's too much italicization! And while your thesis was interesting, it got muddled a bit in the length of this piece.
I've really enjoyed your work and glad you're back writing. Can't wait for more from you
Curious what your thoughts are on the future of Alvin Bragg. Obviously DA are rarely primaried especially the Manhattan DA and Bragg's successful conviction of Trump in a jurisdiction that doesn't particular like Trump would seem to be big factors in discouraging any primary challenge. Bragg also has a huge campaign war chest for a typical DA(much of it raised post Trump conviction) On the other hand the same Eric Adams/Tali Farhadian Weinstein voting electorate is still out there and I am not sure they like Bragg any more today than did when he was first elected(Although Eric Adams' own legal issues are not probably causing this group of people to think more highly of Adams).
My own view is another self funded challenge by Tali Farhadian Weinstein would look really bad and given her ties to the hedge industry might give off vibes of being some type of payback from Trump supporting hedge funders like Bill Ackman. Anyways curious if anyone has any thoughts on this.
👏 I learned so much from this comprehensive history of multiple campaigns and elections.
I didn't know about Micah Lasher's stint at StudentsFirstNY and how it impacted his messaging and future campaigns. I recently wrote about where the 2025 NYC mayoral candidates stand on charter schools here: https://nycpolitics101.substack.com/p/where-do-the-2025-nyc-mayoral-candidates
It was painful having to chose between Zinerman and Huntley, both horrible but in different ways. As a founding member of one of Brooklyn's reform clubs fifteen years ago, I never thought I'd ever find myself voting for the machine candidate. But the far left turn of recent years has left me politically homeless.
That was driven home for me every time I walked by that huge Palestinian flag in Huntley's office, and saw it framed as his number one issue in mailers. In a state assembly race! The only consolation is all the recent anti-Semitism finally has a lot of millennial liberals waking up from wokeness. Quietly and privately for now.